Head of Brunswick Downtown Association stepping down

BRUNSWICK, Maine — Brunswick’s top downtown economic development strategist announced Tuesday that she will step down from the post as soon as a replacement can be hired.

Stephanie Slocum, executive director of the Brunswick Downtown Association, or BDA, made the announcement in an email Tuesday.

Slocum, who oversaw Brunswick’s successful application to become a Main Street Maine community earlier this year, said her decision stemmed from a need to care for a family member with “serious health issues.”

Slocum, a Bath native, first took on work at the BDA at the turn of the millennium as the organization’s first part-time executive director.

She left that position to become the director of economic development for the town of Freeport. During that time she also served on the Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority, the entity charged with overseeing civilian reuse of the former Brunswick Naval Air Station.

Following the leadership of two other part-time directors, the BDA in 2009 hired its first full-time director, Greg Farr, who resigned in late 2010. Slocum then returned to Brunswick from retirement in South Carolina to take over as the interim executive director of the BDA.

In her email Tuesday, Slocum said she will continue to lead the organization until a search committee established by the BDA’s board of directors finds a replacement.

During her time at the organization, the BDA started a number of new downtown events — including a restaurant week and early bird sale — and took over management of the visitor center at Brunswick Station.

For the organization that sponsors weekly summer concerts on Wednesday evenings at the town gazebo and hosts the town’s holiday tree lighting every winter, Slocum wrote Tuesday that she believes that “significant progress has been made in addressing multiple downtown Brunswick opportunities.”

In thanking the BDA staff, volunteers, town staff, local businesses and nonprofit organizations, Slocum wrote that she was proud of the organization’s progress.

“Our efforts have been a great example of what partnerships can accomplish,” Slocum wrote. “Thank you all for being a part of what we’ve worked on together.”